One of the Best Places to Catch the Latest Wine Trends, and It's Not at a Fancy Wine Bar.

One of my favorite bars has just closed its door recently. Well, the place technically didn't even have a door to the bar as it was INSIDE a major US grocery store. I don't know which countries you readers may be from and this could be the norm in your country however, occasionally in the US you can hit a bar inside a grocery store (have even seen them at select Whole Foods Markets).

One specific grocery store bar has quite a following among locals and with visitors during holiday seasons. With people coming from all over to visit their relatives' homes. Of course, then to grocery shop for preparing turkeys, greeen bean casseroles and pecan pies. Or, out of boredom to quiet everyone down with a purchase of ice cream.

Here, the regulars go-to drinks were served before they sat down at the bar. With occasional big themed parties like a retirement celebration of a well-loved and long-time serving famous boss with 120 people and DJ's. During the last opening days of bar, all the regulars came back to hang out with everybody for several days in a row. Yes, this all happened at a bar inside a grocery store.

Although smaller with just a counter and around 10 seats, they offered selections of more than 10 rotating beer taps and almost every style of wine from the bottle selection of the store.

With a diverse group of people from all walks of life, spectrum of ages and backgrounds, it was better than your typical bars as, it brought people together by a shared, critical mission to grocery shop.

From doctors, teachers, engineers, construction workers, pilots to retirees- everyone must go grocery shopping at some point in the week. It turned picking up groceries from a tedious chore into a fun weekly get-together.

Naturally, this is an interesting place to observe what people choose to sample and what kind of bottles of wine people pick up for their stew in the slow cooker for dinner at home.

Conversation topics at the bar almost always revolved about food at home. What's for dinner tonight? What's the best recipe for the turkey stuffing, or how to make tofu patties as a healthier substitute for meat (that was one of my talking points- I'll write the recipe if you want).

Of course, being in the wine corner the topics would then move around food and wine paring.

To me, it was one of the best places to catch up with the real and latest wine trend in the area.

The Shift from Heavy & Bold Reds Wine to Lighter & Fruity Reds

The shift from heavy and bold red wines to lighter and fruity red wines- this has been mentioned for quite a while in wine industy consumer trends and, I witnessed this firsthand, with a suspicion that this is due to the change of diet at home.

People have started eating lighter and healthier at home; from heavier and chunky red meats, steak or strongly seasoned smokey BBQs to lighter poultry dishes or simple grilled fish and pasta.

From broadly accepted food and wine pairing principles, when considering red wines, the bold and big reds go well with red meat dishes similar filet mignon and, the lighter and fruity reds pair better with lighter white meat or fish like grilled chicken or salmon. Thus, if the eating habits of people have changed there would also likely be changes in their choices of wine pairing accordingly.

Thus, customers may have started to prefer fruit-forward lighter reds such as, Pinot Noir or Grenache from Oregon over bolds like heavily oaked classical Cabernet Sauvignon with punchy tannins from Central Valley California.

As a Matter of Fact, They May Like Chardonnay When They Say "I Hate Chardonnay".

In the area of US where I live, Chardonnay is one of the dominant grape varieties of white wine on shelves in major grocery stores. Thus, those popular varietal whites are always one of the selections at this bar. When I would ask what kinds of white wines they would choose for their quick hydration while shopping, I would often hear from these fellow customers "Oh, I hate Chardonnay."

Their descriptions of Chardonnay were often as a rich, melted butter flavored vanilla-scented candle. In one case, a customer I was chatting with described their impression of Chardonnay related to their un-cool aunt's love for buttery and heavy Chard. Therefore, they considered Chardonnay as an outdated variety. Yet those vanilla, butter aromas and flavors are not coming from the Chardonnay grape itself, they come from winemaking.

Chardonnay can be grown and ripen in wide variety of climates from cold to hot. In cooler climates, it can show fresh green apple and lemon flavors while in moderate to warm and hot climates these fruit profiles change to riper fruit, such as peach and melon to banana and pineapple.

The fruit profile can change due to the growing climate it was in yet, these are also subtle aromas, and Chardonnay is sometimes called a blank canvas. It can reflect completely different kinds of winemaking technique, like MLC, yeast and oak.

Malolactic conversion (MLC) takes place after alcoholic fermentation has finished. It converts the tart malic grape acid into the softer lactic acids. This reaction softens and reduces acidity, adding buttery flavors such as cream, butter and cheese.

Yeast gives Chardonnay a toasty, bready, or biscuit-like flavor through a process called autolysis while maturing wine in oak gives Chardonnay vanilla, toast flavors.

Thus, Chardonnay can display completely different faces on its own. A melted vanilla ice cream flavor is derived from the winemaking process and is not the only Chardonnay type.

Once this person who claimed to have hated Chardonnay was served a fresh and fruity unoaked glass of Chardonnay full of refreshing green and citrus fruit flavors from the cooler Russian River Valley in California; they liked it so much that they bought a few bottles to take back home. Yes, that small grocery store bar also had a great wine expert as a bartender as well.

New Normal: Easy Daily Bubbly

Another trend I've noticed while shopping and sipping wine at this grocery bar counter has been the remarkable increase of people buying sparkling wine to take back home on a daily basis.

Sparkling wines, especially Champagne have been strongly associated with special occasions and celebrations like wedding parties, congratulating someone on a promotion or essential to the holiday spirit of Christmas or New Year's Eve.

However, after Covid people started to take their bubbly back home from an almost complete halt in social gatherings and parties during the shutdown.

It seems that in the post-Covid era, opening a bottle of sparkling wine became a casual, everyday pleasure, not just for special occasions.

I did a little research to see if this trend was true. I couldn't find actual consumption data but found some production and import data where I tried to look for an understandable general trend.

Figure: Total Sparkling Wine Production & Imports

Note. Graph created by Yuka,T basted on data adapted from "Sparkling Wine Production & Imports," (n.d.), by WINE INSTITUTE, (https://wineinstitute.org/our-industry/statistics/us-sparkling-wine-champagne-shipments/).

Figure above indicates the shifted amount of total sparkling wine production and imports in the world. From 2019 to 2020 when Covid started to outbreak globally, the production and imports of sparkling wine decreased 3.45%. This is sensible as people just stopped going out drinking or throwing parties for every occasion.

Yet, in the following years from 2020 to 2022, saw a sharp increase year over year (32.6%). This indicates the gradual resumption of wining & dining out, but the growth rate of 32.6% is surprisingly higher compared to the previous rate of decline of 3.45%. During that time, dining out had not yet fully recovered, and people continued to have their meals mainly at home.

It could be argued that this contributes to the rapid surge in household consumption. Later in 2023 and 2024 the trend moves downward, however the number in 2023-2024 still exceeds pre-Covid numbers in 2019 and 2020.

In short, overall production and import volumes of sparkling wine have increased over the past five years, including during the COVID pandemic, and it might be mainly due to higher consumption at home.

The great success of Prosecco and Cava should also be mentioned among these years, both in mixology and especially in at-home consumption. Sky-high inflation right after the pandemic should take some blame as general prices of Chapmagne are much higher compared to those of Prosecco and Cava. According to a report from the Drinks Business, over the past seven years, Prosecco sales have risen 178%, to US$500 million in sales.

No wonder, we've seen a noticeable increase in display shelves for Prosecco and Cava at the grocery store.

It is not that people are celebrating something every day but, enjoying affordable bubblies in more relaxed home more frequently becoming the new normal.

Sparkling wine has made the leap from a special occasion drink to an everyday luxury.

These are the three trends I've picked up on while stopping at our favorite grocery store bar in this Southeast town in the US we have been living in for several years. Thanks to that place, I've had the chance to see what is really going on in wine trends among ordinary grocery store consumers.

Can't we grocery shop, sip at a bar while following wine trends all at the same time?

Of course, it was just fun to have a little chat over glass of wine with whoever stopped by there.

Cheers!

Sources

Sparkling Wine Production & Imports (n.d.). WINE INSTITUTE. Retrieved May 15, 2026 https://wineinstitute.org/our-industry/statistics/us-sparkling-wine-champagne-shipments/

Sophie Arundel, (2025, October 3). Prosecco powers past US$500m in US sales as it outshines Champagne, The Drinks Business. Retreived May 15,2026 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/10/prosecco-powers-past-us500m-in-us-sales-as-it-outshines-champagne/